Army Community Theatre opens its season with 'Gypsy' - based on the memoirs of burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee - and it plays with confidence, as if it's the only game in town.

Its producers hold a solid hand and give it a strong lead.

The solid hand belongs to Glenn Cannon, who has stacked the deck with a secure cast and guides them through this powerhouse musical that sometimes seems alive enough to drive itself.

The strong lead is Shari Lynn, who steps into the role of domineering stage mother as if it were written for her. It was written - of course - for Ethel Merman, who gave it the signature stamp of a Sherman tank cutting through cornfields. Rosalind Russell followed the bulldozer approach in the movie, as did Bette Midler in the TV version.

While the current Broadway revival starring Bernadette Peters makes the lead character of Mamma Rose more vulnerable, Lynn opts for the traditional interpretation - creating a seemingly invulnerable personality that begins to crack only when daughter Gypsy develops the confidence to fight back.

That central message is sharp and clear in the final scenes when Gypsy begins to parlay her burlesque persona into personal wealth and fame, demonstrating that the child must break from the parent and that the parent must let go.

The pain of letting go drives the big finale number, 'Rose's Turn,' where Lynn wrings a lifetime of hurt from lyrics like 'One quick look as each of them leaves you. Thanks a lot and out with the garbage!'

The number offers a neat, counterpoint echo from the end of Act One, where Lynn blasts 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' into a challenge against Fate.

But this is not a message musical.

The music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim want us to have fun. And Cannon's staging of the bumbling show-business path followed a third-rate child act is filled with color, sound, and memorable characters. Grace Bell Humerickhouse adds complementary choreography.

Jakara Mato is a bit young for Gypsy's final scenes but sings well and manages an excellent transition from ugly duckling Louise to the swan she finally becomes as Gypsy.

David Farmer is just right as Rose's long-suffering boyfriend Herbie and gives the character enough substance for us to feel his final disappointment.

Gene DeFrancis as Yonkers successfully pulls off a difficult song and dance solo and Bryna O'Neill as June shows us the frustration of a young woman forced to remain a child star. Marcela Biven and Kate Ryan do well as young June and Louise.

Euphrosyne Rushforth, Cameryn Krainin and Mary Ann Changg are delightful as a trio of down-at-the-heels strippers.

Lina Jeong Doo's orchestra does well - with occasional indecision among the horns - Tom Giza's sets change smoothly, and Kathy Kohl's costumes add a punch of color and style.

'Gypsy' makes us feel good and lets our spirits climb. That's some praise for a show that also delivers a universal message.


Tuesday, September 9, 2003
SHOW BIZ

Shari Lynn as Mama Rose - the perfect fit

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

THEATER NOTES: Shari Lynn is remarkable as Mama Rose in Army Community Theatre's revival of 'Gypsy,' now at Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter. She inhabits the part with all the passion and fervor of a dreaded but dedicated stage mother with nary a flaw - the right role for the right actor with the right voice at the right time of her career. She is so good, she could easily step into a national touring company tomorrow, without skipping a beat. Her solos, 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' and 'Rose's Turn,' are showstoppers - tunes originally written with the late Ethel Merman in mind. Director Glenn Cannon's choice of David Farmer as Herbie and Jakara Mato as Older Louise (a.k.a. Gypsy Rose Lee) are perfect in lesser roles, but the unexpected "find" is singer-dancer Cole Horibe, appearing as Tulsa; he has the agility and sizzle of a Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, with a drizzle of Marcelo Pacleb, on his 'All I Need Is a Girl' solo, and Grace Bell Humerickhouse's choreography clearly facilitates his journey to stardom.

Hawaii

Dave Donnelly
Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Rock 'n' roll retirees? No way!

Oh, mama
WHILE I've long admired Shari Lynn's voice, there was often something lacking in her stage characterizations. Well, no more. She's nailed Mama Rose in the Army Community Theater production of 'Gypsy,' playing through Sept. 20 at Ft. Shafter's huge Richardson Theater.

For that we can thank, in large part, director Glenn Cannon, who made Lynn the perfect stage Mama. And also for melding the songs into a continuation of the plot line. None of this song, dialogue, song, dialogue nonsense for this anything-but-loose Cannon.

The rest of the cast was fine, although I'd be remiss to overlook David Farmer, who fit in well as Herbie. He sings and even dances a bit with Mama Rose, and his toupee made him look eerily like Gene Kelly ...



Monday, September 8, 2003

Cast shines in a dark rendition of 'Gypsy'

By John Berger

Shari Lynn delivers her final number in 'Gypsy' with such dramatic impact that she deserves a standing ovation, and yet her character has caused so much psychological damage by that time that it's difficult to separate Lynn's brilliant performance from the hideously flawed character of Mama Rose.

The song, 'Rose's Turn,' expresses Rose's dreams of stardom and her bitter frustration at never achieving them. Frustration drove Rose to force her daughters into show business so that she could live her dreams through them.

The song is the classic over-the-top finale that Broadway stars dream of, and Lynn hits every facet perfectly, but taken in context, 'Rose's Turn' is like listening to a killer rationalize a murder.

It's the victim we care about.

What else can be said after watching Rose decide that her daughter, Louise, will strip onstage if the burlesque house owner gives the girl top billing?

OK, so guys way older than I am say there was a time when 'strippers' didn't take it all off.

But Jakara Mato (Louise) looks so stunned, so terrified and so far under the age of consent that the thought of Mama Rose forcing her to remove any garments at all for the entertainment of male voyeurs is creepy and downright disgusting.

As the scene plays out and the poor girl tries to compose herself, we get the feeling that if the theater owner had wanted to have sex with Louise in exchange for top billing, Rose would have served as pimp.

Credit director Glenn Cannon with putting a very dark spin on this classic Broadway musical for Army Community Theatre.

As for Mato, she plays perfectly as a psychologically abused girl who morphs into a nationally famous stripper. Mato is clearly a star on the rise. Two other pivotal scenes prove the point. In 'All I Need Now Is the Girl,' Louise watches as a male dancer named Tulsa shows her the routine he's working on -- the routine that will be his ticket out of the act and his shot at star status.

The piece is beautifully choreographed by Grace Bell Humerickhouse, and Cole Horibe performs with precision and fluid grace as Tulsa. But the choreography is only the foundation of Mato's poignant performance, silently revealing that she could be the girl that Tulsa's seeking.

Mato also shines in a scene right after Rose and Louise arrive at the burlesque house. At first, Rose wants to bail -- vaudeville acts looked down on the performers who entertained between strip acts. But Louise points out that they need the money.

Her skills as a seamstress soon give her an 'in' with the strippers, and she also decides she'll sub for a nonstripping 'talking woman' in other acts.

It's a pivotal scene in the relationship between Louise and Rose, and Mato makes it work.

Local theater fans expect perfection from Lynn, and she lives up to expectations with her portrayal of Rose, the ultimate stage mother, whose obsession with show business destroys her relationship with her daughters.

Rose lavishes attention on her talented younger daughter, June, while relegating older and 'untalented' Louise to secondary status. Both girls dutifully follow their mother's instructions, even though their act is appallingly bad even as a kiddie act. It gets worse as the girls reach puberty.

The unspoken joke in this dark tragedy is that Rose never fully comprehends how lame the act is -- or that changing the dancing newsboys to dancing farm boys and adding two people in a cow costume doesn't improve it.

Humerickhouse and two sets of dancers -- kids in the first version, adults thereafter -- do a hilarious job establishing how bad the material is and how threadbare it becomes.

Lynn does the stage-mother thing perfectly, and from the first verse of 'Some People (I Had a Dream),' there's no \ question she owns the show in all respects. Rose has five big numbers in Act 1 and another great one early in Act 2 -- Lynn makes each worth the price of admission. Whether going big and brassy or playing soft and calculating, Lynn does beautifully nuanced work. Her interpretation of Rose is tough, self-centered and ruthless.

Euphrosyne Rushforth (Tessie Tura), Cameryn Krainin (Mazeppa) and Mary Ann Changg (Electra) do an outstanding job as the strippers who make 'You Gotta Get a Gimmick' bright and brassy. Unfortunately, their number was marred by microphone problems -- the only time sound was a problem on opening night.

David C. Farmer (Herbie) is pleasant as the traveling salesman Rose beguiles into becoming the act's manager/agent.

Marcela Biven (Baby June) and Kate Ryan (Baby Louise) star in the first two versions of 'Let Me Entertain You,' and Bryna O'Neill (June) joins Mato in making 'If Mama Was Married' a poignant yet gently comic high in Act 1.

In theory, 'Gypsy' ends as a triumph for Louise, who becomes a world-famous stripper, and for Rose, who has a nervous breakdown but eventually comes to terms with her resentments.

Maybe that's how it played on Broadway back in 1959, but in 2003 the sight of a terrified child-woman who doesn't look a day over 14 being forced by her mother to become a stripper is so creepy that it overshadows everything else.